Manchin urges Biden to negotiate with McCarthy after passing debt limit proposal
Emily Jacobs
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is reiterating his public call for President Joe Biden to negotiate with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on raising the debt limit as the risk of default nears.
McCarthy was able to hold enough of the House Republican Conference together to pass his debt ceiling budget proposal, which is meant to serve as an opening salvo in negotiations with the White House, on Wednesday. Biden, backed up by Senate Democrats, has stood firm in his refusal to negotiate over the debt limit.
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“The clock is ticking on this debt ceiling crisis and the American people will pay the economic price if President Biden continues to refuse to sit down and negotiate a commonsense compromise that would prevent a historic default,” Manchin said in a statement Thursday. “Speaker McCarthy did his job and he passed a bill that would prevent default and finally begin to rein in federal spending. While I do not agree with everything proposed, it remains the only bill moving through Congress that would prevent default and that cannot be ignored.”
While noting that the two men had not met or negotiated in 85 days, the West Virginia senator argued it was on Biden to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
“Only the President can prevent this from becoming a full-blown domestic crisis,” the statement read. “For the sake of our nation that we all serve, I urge the President to put politics and partisanship aside, come to the table and negotiate a real compromise that saves America from this impending economic catastrophe.”
The debt ceiling, or the top amount the federal government can borrow, will either need to be raised or abolished sometime this summer to avert a debt default. Economists have long warned that such a default would wreak havoc on the economy.
McCarthy’s legislation pairs nearly $4.8 trillion in deficit reduction measures with a debt limit increase into the next year. The bill would return government agency funding to fiscal 2022 levels and cap annual increases to about 1% annually, except for the Pentagon. It would also roll back parts of Biden’s expansive health, climate, and tax law, expand mining and fossil fuel production, and impose work requirements on social programs.
The White House has decried the bill as an attempt at political “hostage-taking” and vowed that Biden would veto it if it reached his desk, though the likelihood of such legislation passing the Senate, where Democrats control the chamber 51-49, is slim.
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Manchin said last Wednesday that Biden’s refusal to negotiate signaled “a deficiency of leadership, and it must change.”
“The fact is we are long past time for our elected leaders to sit down and discuss how to solve this impending debt ceiling crisis,” he said.